The late Sir Maitland Mackie, who was a giant of Scottish farming, political and business life, is to have a high-profile public lecture named after him at the university where he graduated 65 years ago.
The annual Sir Maitland Mackie lecture at the University of Aberdeen’s Department of Agriculture will focus on the scientific aspects of the food and farming industry.
Sir Maitland, who died in 1996 aged 84 at the family farm of Westertown, Rothienorman, was widely respected for his work as an innovative farmer and his role in helping establish Aberdeen as the UK centre for the North Sea oil industry.
Top Scots food expert Professor Hugh Pennington, who carried out the investigation into the E.coli 0157 outbreak in Scotland which killed 20 people, will deliver the first lecture on ‘Food Safety: an idea whose time has come’ next week.
Prof Pennington, who heads the University’s Department of Medical Microbiology, will give the talk at the University’s MacRobert Lecture Theatre, MacRobert Building, 581 King Street, Aberdeen at 7.30pm on Wednesday 11 February 1998.
The lecture will introduced by Sir Maitland’s son, Grampian Enterprise Chairman Dr Maitland Mackie. Admission is free and open to the public.